The US has executed Brandon Bernard, a Black man concerned in the 1999 killing of a couple regardless of appeals from advocacy teams, jurors, and others after President Donald Trump ordered collection of prisoner executions in his last days in office.
Bernard, 40, from Texas, was on Thursday, December 10, given a deadly injection at the federal jail in Terre Haute, Indiana.
He was 18 when he and 4 different youngsters participated within the murders of Todd and Stacie Bagley, a pair on their manner from a Sunday church service in Killeen, Texas in 1999.
Bernard is the ninth federal inmate who has been executed since July when US President Donald Trump lifted a 17-year freeze on federal executions.
His execution came days after Trump ordered collection of federal executions in his last days in office after losing his re-election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Bernard’s case drew the eye of anti-death penalty advocates, celebrities together with reality star Kim Kardashian as they pleaded for pardon and highlighted a number of elements together with his age when the crime occurred and how race influenced his sentencing.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nationwide civil rights group, tweeted before Thursday’s execution that “5 of the 9 jurors who sentenced him to die, as well as the appellate prosecutor who pushed for a death sentence, now do not believe he should die”.
“The federal government should not be allowed to kill Brandon Bernard – or anyone. Tonight’s execution should not go forward,” the group stated.
Reality TV star, Kim Kardashian was amongst those that had requested Trump to cease the execution.
She made a last-minute enchantment on Thursday, saying she had spoken to Bernard on the cellphone shortly before his execution.
The mom of 4 later confirmed his death in a series of tweets and revealed his final messages before he was put to death.
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